D I S C OV ER I N G P O M P EI I JOURNEY TO THE WORLD’S LARGEST OPEN-AIR MUSEUM. FRESCOES, PAINTINGS, MOSAICS, DOMUS, TAVERNS AND TOMBS AMONGST RECENT AND SENSATIONAL DISCOVERIES
P
ompeii is unique in the world. This is not only because of the extraordinary state of conservation of its ruins but due to it being a palimpsest of numerous urban existences cut short in 79 AD before suddenly recommencing in the century of the Enlightenment, with the start of official excavations in 1748. From then to today, 270 years of new life have passed, a historical journey comprised of people engaged in excavations, restorations, reflections on how to manage an incredible heritage, and appreciative visitors coming in even greater numbers each year (today averaging around four million). Between those two emblematic moments of destruction and rediscovery – 79 and 1748 – came another extensive, more mysterious, underground existence – whilst above the blanket of ash and lapilli was a fertile cultivated countryside, beneath lay the walls of rooms and buried streets repeatedly revisited to rummage through the ruins. This centuries-long treasure hunt pushed ordinary people who lived, cultivated and worked above the vanished city to create pits, tunnels and burrows to search for precious objects. People have long been digging in Pompeii, both lawfully and illicitly. Today, those who stroll along the dusty streets of the ancient city, who enter its houses to admire paintings and mosaics, can barely perceive this temporal stratification, being led to believe that what can be seen – the spaces, architecture, decorations –
Due gladiatori alla fine della lotta, in una scena di un affresco scoperto di recente nella Regio V Two gladiators at the end of the fight, in a the scene of the last fresco found in the Regio V
is a set image of a reality stopped in its tracks once and for all by the eruption of Vesuvius and extracted from the incessant flow of time. The city continues to offer thrills and reflections, to inspire fashions and forms of art, whilst the official workers recall the incessant commitment (in removing the lapilli, the restorations, the reconstructions) and also the damage that man has inflicted over time (carelessness, incorrect operations, clandestine excavations – sometimes more ruthless than nature). What is the excavated city of today, our contemporary Pompeii? We can say that today’s Pompeii is the one experiencing a new life, an example of redemption following the dark years of scandals and collapses (including the most striking one of the Schola Armaturarum in 2010). At that time, the prolonged lack of systematic checks and constant maintenance led to situations of degradation so advanced that they could not be safeguarded by standard interventions alone. Pompeii needed a Grande Progetto – a Great Project – able to address all the critical issues in a pervasive and extensive way, finally in an urban scale. Commenced in 2012 but only coming into full force between 2014 and 2019, thanks to a new law (the Valore Cultura decree) and the commitment of two ministers,
Massimo Bray and Dario Franceschini, the Grande Progetto Pompei has led to a change in governance (with the Carabinieri General Giovanni Nistri as General Director of the GPP, today replaced by General Mauro Cipolletta, and the author as Special Superintendent and now Director General of the Archaeological Park), putting in place qualified forces and skills, enlivened by a common goal to do a good job and do it quickly. In this way, fundamental operations and activities were undertaken to conserve and preserve Pompeii, solving many of the problems never before addressed, securing the entire archaeological area, restoring and reopening whole zones, buildings and roads denied to the public for too long. In opening access to 32 hectares out of the 44 excavated plus new pathways, including one for people with disabilities, special attention was paid to fruition, to the public archaeology, defining communication and dissemination systems that now transmit a completely new image of Pompeii. With the Grande Progetto, we finally returned to digging, which had not been done since the 1960s. The works to secure the excavation sources, a project that involved the re-shaping and stabilisation of the escarpments 65